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the meal Carlton asked Weston for gasoline, ostensibly to clean a rug with. He was permitted to retrieve the gasoline, with which he doused the rugs and exterior of the building. Setting the gasoline alight and telling his wife to run, he ran to veranda and killed Ms. Borthwick and John with blows from his hatchet. He also killed Martha as she was trying to flee; she was the only family member not found sitting in a chair.

The work crew in the dinning room did not fare much better. The gasoline fire spread rapidly and they all suffered burns. Herbert Fritz dove out of a window, breaking his arm in the process. He rolled down the hill to extinguish his clothing, and looked up to see Carlton running around the house. Weston made it out the same window, and was knocked to the ground by two blows from the back of Carlton's hatchet. Carlton did not pursue him further, perhaps under the assumption he was dead, and killed Thomas Brunker with a blow to the skull. Brodelle and Ernest Weston shared a similar fate as well. David Lindblom received a non-fatal wound to the back of his head, but was badly burned. He and Weston managed to telephone for help from a farmhouse a half mile down the road. Lindblom stayed at the farmhouse due to his injuries, and Weston returned to the fire and combated it with the house fire hose until he was forced to stop.

His and the fire brigades efforts were futile; in less than three hours Taliesin had burned to the ground. A few hours after that, Julian Carlton was found hiding in the furnace. He had attempted to commit suicide by swallowing muriatic acid (household name for hydrochloric acid), and was almost lynched by the mob. He was however safely transferred to the county jail under the protection of the local sheriff. He managed to starve himself to death over the next two months in jail. He died before he could be convicted, and never clarified the motive behind his actions.

David Lindblom later died from the severe burns he received, leaving William Weston and Herbert Fritz as the only survivors of the attack.

Wright came to the scene as quickly as he could from Chicago, running into and traveling with Ms. Borthwick's ex-husband, Edwin Cheney. Cheney came for the remains of his children; Ms. Borthwick was laid to rest at the Unity Church in Spring Green.

The fire took everything that Wright had worked for over the prior 5 years. Dismayed by the loss it took him a period to regain his former will. However, he went on to continue his career and rebuild Taliesin, using it as his summer home for the next 50-odd years of his life.

Sources

Secrest, Meryle. "Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography" University of Chicago Press, 1998

Gabriel, Mary Ellen. "The Taliesin Massacre" Isthmus: The Daily Page, 03/08/2007

"Mamah Borthwick." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 26 Nov 2007, 04:35 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 Jan 2008

"Frank Lloyd Wright." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 9 Jan 2008, 19:06 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 Jan 2008

"Taliesin (studio)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 2 Jan 2008, 16:04 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 Jan 2008

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